Recruitment
Inspiring the next generation Network Rail’s Lydia Fairman on seeking out and developing the future and emerging talent for the railways
R
ail needs tens of thousands more professionals over the coming years to help keep the country running. To achieve this the vast array of opportunities has to be showcased to young people, making it a career they aspire to work in. Leading the charge is Network Rail’s Lead Capability and Development Manager Lydia Fairman, whose passion and energy is playing a vital role in creating an excitement about engineering, and particularly the railways, among young people, particularly females. “It is a weird and wonderful world that I work in and I think it is one of the most interesting jobs in rail,” she said. “The rail industry has got one of the biggest sells in the world in terms of the opportunities, we just need to verbalise it better. There is a huge role to be played in the UK’s recovery and there is a chance for young people to play their part as there is no better industry than rail for things like apprenticeships, graduate schemes and traineeships. “In my role I get to look at the situation from every angle. I’m looking at the problems we’ve got, the challenges and the opportunities. Me and my team get to showcase what the rail industry has to offer and to get young people really interested and then help them should they wish to pursue a career.” A shortage of engineers isn’t a problem that just faces the rail industry, with the situation in the UK on the whole in a precarious position. A recent survey by The Institution of Engineering
and Technology found there was an estimated annual shortfall of 59,000 new engineering graduates and technicians, a deficit which only continues to get worse. Such is the scale of the problem that the UK
Government announced that 2018 was the Year of Engineering, a national year-long campaign to increase awareness and understanding of what engineers do among young people aged 7-16, their parents and teachers.
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8 | April 2021
railbusinessdaily.com